Andre Guelfi

Andre Guelfi

6/5/1919

Born in Mazagan, Morocco, the son of a Corsican military officer, Guelfi was always an entrepreneur, chauffeuring tourists along the beach from the age of 10. By 16 he had become a debt collector for the local bank. He ended up earning more than the Bank Manager and invested in the sardine industry. He introduced refrigeration aboard the ships and pioneering a technique of freezing sardines earning himself the nickname 'Dede la Sardine'.

During the war he enlisted in a Moroccan regiment in Italy and became a driver.

He started racing in 1950 mainly in North Africa driving first a Delahaye, then a Jaguar.

In 1953 he came to international prominence racing a Gordini sports car, taking it to class and outright wins at Agadir and sharing a works car with Behra in the 12-hour race at Casablanca, retiring with a broken shock absorber.

In 1954 he took a class win and sixth overall at Le Mans driving a Gordini with Jacky Pollet and also raced a single seater Gordini at Pescara going out when his car caught fire on the first lap.

He continued to race mainly in Africa winning the Moroccan championship in 1955 however he still made occasional forays into Europe.

In 1956 he drove with Nano Da Silva Ramos at Le Mans, going out with clutch problems and in the 1000Km of Paris, where they crashed.

In 1957 he raced at Pau, finishing seventh, though some way behind the leaders. The pale blue Gordini's were now no longer competetive and in 1958 Andre switched to racing a new rear engined Cooper. In June he finished second in the Prix de Paris at Montlhery, only three seconds behind Henry Taylor also in a Cooper. He also raced in the first and last Grand Prix of Morocco when an F2 class was added to bolster the field. He was the last classified finisher

He subsequently raced on in Morocco through the sixties, and as late as 1968 his name still appeared in the results when he took second place in a race in Rabat in a Porsche 911R.

He left Africa in the 1970s and settled in Paris, working in real estate. He married the niece of the then French president Georges Pompidou. With his impressive contacts he built a small empire, acquiring 128 of the city's buildings. He moved into a mansion in Lausanne, overlooking Lake Geneva and aquired a private jet (He sold the property to the Musée Olympique in 1993).

He worked as a negotiator with Elf Aquitaine and, in 1992, he was the conduit for some £25 million of commissions from Elf's 'black box' of secret funds to German businessmen and lobbyists, some linked to Helmut Kohl, when Elf bought the Leuna refinery in East Germany. He also paid the novelist Françoise Sagan £1 million to persuade her friend Mitterrand to keep Le Floch-Prigent on as President at Elf.

For his part in the far wider affair he was given a 3 year suspended jail sentence and a 1 million Euro fine. After other controversial dealings, he retired and wrote a book on his life called 'Original', published in 1999.

He bought Le Coq Sportif company and became involved in sports sponsorship along the way. He became a friend and advisor to IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch.

In 2000, he moved to Malta.

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Born on the same day.

The following drivers were born on the same day as Andre Guelfi (22nd - February)